A review by bookscoffeehayley
The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen

challenging dark funny informative tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

CW: rape, xenophobia, racial slurs, sexism, homophobia

Viet Thanh Nguyen’s The Sympathizer was such an interesting read. I really enjoyed going into the mind of our unnamed protagonist. The writing style of this book is so wonderful.

This may make me a dumb reader, but it took me a bit to get into a groove with reading this book because there are no quotations. It was jarring at first, but once I got used to it, I started to really enjoy this stylistic decision.

I don’t know a lot about the Vietnam War. I vaguely remember learning about it in the general sense in school, but it always fell at the end of the year and I felt like we rushed through it. This book was an eye-opening novel to read about the war, specifically from the Vietnamese perspective. I’m looking forward to reading the sequel, The Committed that hit shelves earlier this month. I also grabbed Nguyen’s short story collection, The Refugees, from the library and look forward to reading it as well.

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